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LAX91FA132 · Hawker Siddeley DH.125-1A/522 DH.125-1A/

16 Mar 1991 · San Diego, CA, United States

Prestige Tours Hawker Siddeley DH.125-1A/522 DH.125-1A/ · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route

From San Diego, CA to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX91FA132
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
10 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Hawker Siddeley DH.125-1A/522 DH.125-1A/

Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N831LC
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From San Diego, CATo Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA), Amarillo, TX
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
En route · climb to cruise
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
In flight collision with terrain/water
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Copilot/second pilot › Monitoring, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of San Diego, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

AFTER FLYING PSNL OF ENTERTAINMENT GROUP TO LINDBERGH FLD, ACFT WAS PSND TO NRBY BROWN FLD, SINCE LATE DEP WAS PLANNED AFTER NOISE CURFEW WAS IN EFFECT AT LINDBERGH. PLT TALKED WITH FSS SPECIALIST (SPLST) 3 TIMES BFR TKOF. HE RPRTD HE DID NOT HAVE INST DEP PROC FM ARPT. SPLST READ DEP PROC ON PHONE. ON LAST CALL TO FSS, PLT SAID HE PLANNED TO DEP VFR TWD NE & OBTAIN IFR CLNC AFTER AIRBORNE. (THIS RTE WAS TWD MTS.) DRG CALL, PLT EXPRESSED CONCERN ABT REMAINING CLR OF TCA & INQUIRED ABT STAYING BLO 3000'. SPLST AGREED WITH PLTS CONCERNS, BUT AFTER ACDNT, SPLST SAID HE THOUGHT PLT WAS REFERRING TO 3000' AGL, RATHER THAN 3000' MSL. PLT HAD FILED TO TKOF AT MIDNIGHT, BUT DIDN'T GET AIRBORNE UNTIL 0141 PST. SINCE FLT WAS OVR 1.5 HRS LATE, IFR FLT PLAN HAD 'CLOCKED OUT.' AS CTLR WAS REENTERING FLT PLAN IN COMPUTER, ACFT HIT RISING TRRN NR TOP OF MTN, ABT 8 MI NE OF ARPT AT ELEV OF ABT 3300'. NO DEFICIENCIES WERE FND WITH ACFT OR ITS ENGS. COPLT HAD NO TYPE RATING FOR THIS ACFT, THO HE RPRTDLY HAD MADE 3 TKOFS & LNDGS IN HAWKER-SIDDELEY DH.125.

Probable cause

IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE AND CLEARANCE OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, AND THE COPILOT'S FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THE FLIGHT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: INSUFFICIENT TERRAIN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE FLIGHT SERVICE SPECIALIST DURING THE PREFLIGHT BRIEFING AFTER THE PILOT INQUIRED ABOUT A LOW ALTITUDE DEPARTURE, DARKNESS, MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, BOTH PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA, AND THE COPILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRCRAFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX91FA132
Event ID
20001212X16614
Case number
LAX91FA132
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 4f721747abca200a9c8668b3dec5aa46a35944198954da6d085f04650f675f93; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:54:44.206Z.
  • Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states the airplane "WAS PSND TO NRBY BROWN FLD, SINCE LATE DEP WAS PLANNED AFTER NOISE CURFEW WAS IN EFFECT AT LINDBERGH" and hit terrain about 8 mi NE of that airport; the departure was not recorded.